The official unveiling of the Pixel 2 is only seven days away, but we’re still getting leaks regarding new features of the upcoming phone. While we know that most of you are interested in hardware specs, these new software features are still quite interesting.
Portrait mode: we’re not sure what name Google will be giving this feature, but a new leak claims that the camera app on the Pixel 2 will be able to digitally blur the background in your photos. While HTC was the first to introduce this feature with the Duo Camera on the HTC One M8 (and most other manufacturers have copied the idea since then), the Pixel 2 doesn’t have a second camera sensor to sense the depth of the photo. Google will likely be using AI to manipulate the photo which means that the implementation may actually be better than what other OEMs have achieved even with two camera sensors.
Update Pixel Launcher: the Pixel launcher is extremely popular these days, so it’s no surprise to hear that Google will be bringing it back. The main tweak we will see this year is the repositioning of the search bar. Apparently, Google will be moving it to the very bottom of the screen to make it easier to tap.
Always On Display: it’s been known for a while that Google has been playing around with the idea of an Always On Display, but the latest rumors suggest that Google will finally give in to temptation and add the feature to the Pixel 2.
Always listening music recognition: Pixel phones are always listening for the “OK Google” wake words, but the new phones will also be listening for music. Any time that the phone recognizes that music is playing, it will display the title of the song on your lock screen. For some, this may seem a bit creepy, so I’m sure that Google will allow users to turn the feature off. Personally, I hope Google includes a history feature so that you can look up the song that was playing at a specific time of day.
Obviously, I’m expecting to see even more new software features make their debut on the Pixel 2. Based on what we’ve seen so far, do you think the Pixel 2 will be a huge success for Google and HTC?
Source: @ArtemR, XDA-Developers
